Posts tagged Orbitz

Closing a loophole that lets those big online travel companies collect taxes on only part of sales taxes due on hotel room bookings is just one of four measures Iowa could take to lessen the drain of funds from state coffers before they are even collected.

A new paper by Michael Leachman and Michael Mazerov at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) notes the four options for states. Iowa is one of only 12 states that has failed to take any of those steps. Besides correcting the problem with revenue lost from hotel bookings, CBPP recommends:

Broadening the tax base to include more services. While Iowa has a fairly broad base subject to sales tax, there are many exceptions to the state’s sales tax that have been successfully achieved by the business lobby. In general terms, CBPP notes that household spending has been shifting from goods to services for decades, yet most states haven’t updated their sales taxes to reflect this fact, costing states tens of billions of dollars each year.

Enacting an “Amazon law” to require large online retailers to collect sales taxes. Purchases made through large online retailers such as Amazon or Overstock are subject to sales tax, but retailers aren’t required to collect them in Iowa and 33 other states, at a cost of over $20 billion a year. This puts Main Street businesses in Iowa at a price disadvantage vs. those multistate operations selling the same book, boots, chain saw or prom dress that caught an Iowa consumer’s eye.

Extending the sales tax to Internet downloads. As with the Amazon loophole, the sale of computer software, music, movies, and various other goods delivered on the Internet are not taxed in 23 states including Iowa — even though those states tax the same items when sold in physical stores. Lost revenue: roughly $300 million a year.

The CBPP paper is a good look at an issue Iowa lawmakers have been reluctant to address.

This is one more way research has exposed that Iowa is permitting businesses to take advantage of its residents, by pushing the costs of public services onto other taxpayers, or damming the state’s revenue stream to block funds from flowing to the state. The Iowa Fiscal Partnership already has shown how big multistate corporations avoid corporate income taxes because Iowa refuses to close corporate tax loopholes the way several neighboring states do, and how big companies benefit from the kind of property-tax breaks passed this year. The new piece by CBPP shows sales taxes also are an area where big business makes big money at Iowa taxpayers’ expense.

All of these areas remain good targets for better, more accountable tax policy in Iowa.

Connect With IFP

Did You Know?

Iowa gave away over $53 million in tax year 2019 to businesses that paid no state income tax. The same amount would have provided about a 1 percent increase in state school aid, with millions to spare for other critical services.
Learn more

IFP Toolbox

Sorting fact from fiction on taxes

IFP's Tax Policy Kit offers resources for the public, advocates and policy makers who want to better understand the stakes — and sort away the spin — on state tax debates.